Alcatraz escapees' family convinced brothers alive

Four relatives of John and Clarence Anglin showed Monday at a news conference on Alcatraz that family ties are stronger than prison walls.

It was the 50th anniversary of the most celebrated escape in the Rock's history - and its most enduring mystery. The Anglin brothers, together with Frank Morris, another convict, used spoons to dig holes in the walls of their prison cells, climbed up a utility vent and with a jerry-built raft made of raincoats escaped from the supposedly escape-proof prison on the night of June 11, 1962. They were never seen again.

The usual theory was that all three drowned.

But the U.S. Marshals Service is still looking for them. And the Anglin family is convinced the two brothers, at least, survived. "I always believed they made it," said Marie Anglin Widner, 76, a sister of the Anglin brothers.

She was accompanied to Alcatraz by her sister, Mearl Anglin Taylor, 74, and two nephews of the fugitive brothers.

The family is sure, the sisters said, that John and Clarence Anglin are still alive. "Where are they now? Somewhere," Widner said.

Dave Widner, 45, one of the nephews, said the family thinks the Anglin brothers are in South America. If so, they would be senior citizens now: John Anglin would be 82 and Clarence 81. Morris, the third man, would be 85.

Search continues

All three robbed banks in the South. If any of them surfaced, they would be subject to arrest. U.S. Marshal Michael Dyke, who has been on the case off and on since 2003, said the government is still looking for them.

The Anglins came equipped with scrapbooks, boxes of memorabilia and several theories intended to show that the brothers were still alive. The first clue, they said, was a mysterious phone call to a San Francisco woman not long after the escape. "This is John Anglin," the voice said.

The second was a Christmas card that turned up in the family mailbox in the winter of 1962. Dave Widner held it up: "Look at that," he said. On the card was written "To Mother, from John. Merry Christmas."

There was also the suspicious death of Alfred Anglin, a third brother, killed by guards in an Alabama prison, Widner said. "They beat him to death because he wouldn't tell on his brothers."

No word on the 3rd

The Anglins had nothing to say about Morris. He's not family.

Is it possible that the three are still alive? "If they are not alive, then why is the government still looking for them?" Widner said.

Carl Nolte is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: cnolte@sfchronicle.com